Wellesley Firefighters Who Saved Dog from Charles River to Appear on Ellen DeGeneres

After a video of their rescue went viral, the TV host booked an interview.

The first responders who risked their lives to save a dog from the freezing waters of the Charles River around Christmas will make an appearance on air with Ellen DeGeneres on Tuesday.

On December 23, firefighters in Wellesley suited up in special gear and rescued “Crosby,” who had fallen through the ice along the river, before pulling the dog to safety. Wellesley officials posted a video of the dramatic rescue to their Facebook and Twitter accounts, and the footage soon went viral.

To show her appreciation for the firefighters that braved the shivering cold conditions of the water, DeGeneres decided to fly four of the first responders out to her studio in California. Here’s the announcement made by members of the Wellesley Fire Department this week:

I am going to have to post this very slowly to fully allow it to sink in…On Tuesday the 14th, four of our Wellesley Firefighter members will be on the Ellen Degeneres Show!!! One more time to allow it to marinate for a bit…Four of our Wellesley Firefighter members will be on the Ellen Degeneres Show on Tuesday the 14th…”

Officials from the department went on to say that the reason they accepted the invitation to California to see DeGeneres was because they believe in the power of positive news stories. “Any call can change the fabric of a person, they can either make us stronger, or put a permanent hole in our hearts,” they said.

As word got out about the rescue efforts, and the video spread across the Internet back in December, members of the department said they started to receive calls from all over the country, with people thanking them for the heroic rescue. The news even reached people in France, and led to an award from PETA. “We would like to thank those people from Ohio to Las Vegas, to Naples and San Francisco, who have reached out to the fire department thanking our department for the work we do,” Wellesley officials wrote on Facebook in the days after they scooped Crosby out of the river.

The show will air at 4 p.m. on Tuesday, on Channel 5, and will also feature appearances by Julianna Margulies, star of The Good Wife, and¬†Chiwetel Ejiofor, who plated Solomon Northup in the Golden Globe Award-winning movie 12 Years a Slave.